Jamie Lee Curtis, in a thank you letter to Barack Obama, sets a fantastic standard for what leaders should be, using the words of Rudyard Kipling’s If:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; Read more »

The Hope Express is a great initiative for the citizens of Pakistan. Started by a group of people that are passionate about saving Pakistan, The Hope Express will be pulling into your city soon. There currently is no website to gather additional information, but you can stay tuned to this blog or email us at blog@takebackpakistan.com and we will make sure that you are kept up to date.

Faisal Qureshi is an anchor on a TV show on Samaa - his show, Ankahi, discusses topics of social awareness and civic responsibility. ‘Loose Ends Pakistan’ was a show he anchored on another channel, similar to Ankahi, but with larger groups of people at a time.

This evening, he had Samina Peerzada (respected filmmaker in Pakistan) on the show, discussing whether an individual can make a difference in the world. So much of what was said on the show mirrors what we want to say with Take Back Pakistan, I had to post about it. First, hats off to Samina Peerzada. I don’t think I admire or respect any of our media personalities as much as I do her. She said some beautiful things on the show tonight (and earlier, with Jasmine Mansoor on The Pulse), and left Faisal Qureshi speechless (quite rare) by the end - he was frank enough to sit back and simply applaud her fervor.

Perhaps the most important thing she said was that Pakistan was home. We are Pakistani, and every blade of grass, every tree, every road, every building was HOME. Our property extends beyond our front door, and outside the main gates. Until we all start believing this, until we take this to heart, and start cleaning house, this country goes nowhere.

The fact is that our government is a failure, our leaders are a joke. Leave them to lining their own pockets and collecting their family jewels. Change for the better will only come when we change, and it’s our turn to bat.

I encourage everyone who reads this post to head over to ankahi.tv (where they also put up Ankahi episodes for online viewing, so look for this show), to www.looseendspakistan.com and to http://groups.google.com/group/looseendspakistan. Sign up NOW. Join the discussion, join the silent revolution of a silent majority, and take back your country.

This isn’t funny anymore. I can’t keep a smiling face and honestly tell people that everything is okay. I can’t keep looking out the window when I drive through Karimabad, Nazimabad and Lyari at the numerous shops that go without electricity every day. I feel guilty when I turn on the air conditioner of my car.

I hate the voice of the people on television and radio who talk about the budget and the cost of living, when they have no idea what is going on. How can you create a public-friendly budget when you don’t know what the life of the average member of the public is?

I still see the young beggar boy, Babar, who used to sell cloth pieces at the FTC traffic light before the flyover was built and has since moved to the PIDC area, who I still end up giving a few hundred rupees a month because I once heard him say how hungry he was. Each time I bite into a McDonalds, I feel horrible because I, with all that God has blessed me and my family, have never experienced hunger like what I saw in that young man’s eyes.

I drove to the Paradise Super Store yesterday evening and bumped into the sales lady from Solo. For those of you who are unaware, there is a TON of development work being done and as a result, they have dug up the complete service road right infront of Solo and a lot of other commercial shops. How can these shops survive? Please don’t take me wrong. I am thrilled at the pace of the development work that is being done in the city. For the first time in the short, stunted history of this city, has the political party exhibited so much of its own vested interest in line with what is actually good for the rest of us. Why we are bent upon putting businesses through so much pain and misery because of poor planning and lack of knowing how to divert traffic around to places so the the few people who run businesses that continually attract foreigners, can be salvaged. Read more »